We paddled North Hartland Lake twice on their closing weekend (Labor Day). We will miss seeing the eagles, herons, kingfishers and turtles until next year.
From my kayak 8/30-9/1
From my kayak 7/27-8/11
We have spent the month on our local lakes/rivers with an occasional foray to more distant bodies of water.
Great blue heron –North Hartland Lake -7/27/19 
Great blue heron –North Hartland Lake 7/27/19 
Great blue heron. — Ompompanoosuc River 7/28/18 
Great blue heron –North Hartland Lake 8/2/19 
Green heron –Connecticut River 7/29/19 
Common loon –Grafton Pond 7/30/19 
Common loon. –Grafton Pond 7/30/19 
Fish for baby. Common loon– Grafton Pond, NH 7/30/19 
Loon on display –Grafton Pond 7-30-19 
White great heron –North Hartland Lake 8/2/19 
Bald Eagle –North Hartland Lake 8/2/19 
Osprey –North Hartland Lake 8/10/19 
Wood duck –North Hartland Lake 8/2/19 
Spotted sandpiper –North Hartland Lake 8/2/19 
Bee on pickerel weed. –North Hartland Lake 8/10/19 
Butterfly on Joe Pye weed.–North Hartland Lake 8/10/19 
A dragon fly –Grafton Pond 7/30/19 
Twelve spotted dragon fly –Connecticut River 7/29/19 
Pond lily with damsel fly –Ompompanoosuc River 7/28/19
Kayaking 7/5 – 10
On July 1, we had a flooding event. The Wilder dam opened its floodgates,making for unsafe paddling conditions. Above the dam it was either mudflat or strong current filled with floating debris. Finally on Wednesday, the river was back to normal levels so we went out.
Connecticut River, Wilder 7/5/17
The next day, we headed to North Hartland Dam. Here, the water levels had risen about 4 feet, leaving a bath tub ring of mud on the plants around the lake. They were busy dredging the outlet of the dam, trying to get rid of accumulated silt and debris.
We saw a number of birds of prey: eagles,
a couple of osprey,
a great blue heron
as well as a red-winged blackbird.
After a ducky day on the Connecticut,
we returned to North Hartland.
North Hartland Lake 9/12
We spent quite a while watching an immature bald eagle yesterday on North Hartland Lake.
We also saw the usual variety of herons, ducks, and osprey.
Osprey on North Hartland Lake 9/6
North Hartland Lake provided a show of the usual herons and turtles but also had an osprey hanging around.
